Labour Holds Stoke-on-Trent Central - Ukip Just in Second Ahead Of The Tories

Labour has held Stoke-on-Trent Central after Ukip leader Paul Nuttall’s bid to take the seat failed.

Nuttall is likely to face questions about the future of the party after Labour candidate Gareth Snell retained the seat with 7,853 votes.

Nuttall, whose campaign was blighted by false claims he lost “close friends” in the Hillsborough disaster, received 5,233 votes - a comfortable win for Labour given the much-trumpeted threat Ukip poses to Labour in the north of England.

Nuttall only just beat the Tories.

Defending his campaign while being harangued by reporters, Nuttall claimed the seat was only 17th on his party’s target list.

He said: “We are not going anywhere and I am not going anywhere. We will go on and have success in the future.”

He then struggled to find his car.